It is comforting to imagine that the meek will inherit the earth. That the good life will be rewarded in heaven. That effort and struggle will be valued over result. But what life ought to be should not blind us to its reality.
Let's take Poincare's conjecture. For 100 years, mathematicians have struggle in obscurity to solve this topological mystery. We remember some. But for each a hundred mathematicians who struggled and failed are forgotten.
Let's take the Olympic athlete. Who remembers the third place finisher in each of the last 8 racing's of the Tour de France? Not many. Is that because they failed to try hard enough? Did the winner overcome more obstacles? You, the reader, don't know, because you can't even remember more than a handful of riders- if any. You may know that Lance Armstrong overcame cancer. But you know this because he won. Had he struggled and finished mid-pack, he would be a forgotten man.
But let us turn from an outside view to an internal one. Here Washington's words gain some salience. The individual knows the price of victory and the cost of defeat. He who struggled can satisfy himself that he left his all. The victor who cheated may be feted, but surely his heart remains hollow.
Washington, a black man in a black time, had to ignore the public naysayers around him. He had to rely on an internal drive. And so he saw victory in its most personal terms. Victory is not winning, victory is doing one's best. Victory is leaving all on the table, win or lose.
